Aravana distribution at Sabarimala was badly hit on Saturday morning by the drastic reduction in its daily production. The Food Safety Department had earlier imposed certain restrictions on the production of the prasadom after excess moisture content was found in a batch.
Devaswom executive officer V.S. Jayakumar said the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) was forced to restrict Aravana supply to three tins to each pilgrim from Saturday owing to the short supply of the prasadom.
The Food Safety Department has fixed the moisture content in Aravana to a maximum of 10 per cent. A ‘koottu’ (12,000 tins of 250 ml each) of Aravana manually prepared at the Aravana plant recently was found to have a moisture content of 10.8 per cent, failing to get clearance for sale under the food safety norms, Mr. Jayakumar said.
He said more time was needed to prepare Aravana with below 10 per cent moisture content. Moreover, it was difficult to measure the moisture content in the prasadom due to lack of requisite facility. He said the Aravana was in very high demand at Sabarimala in the past few days and the entire buffer stock was sold out by Friday. The average daily requirement of Aravana during the rush days is 2.75 lakh to 3 lakh tins against the present daily production of 1.10 lakh tins, he said. The TDB had a buffer stock of 26 lakh tins of Aravana at the beginning of the pilgrim season.
‘Norms violated’Meanwhile, K. Babu, Special Commissioner appointed by the High Court, told The Hindu that the court direction, on the basis of the Food Safety Department’s recommendation, was to ensure quality of Aravana and to avoid fungal infection.
He said the Food Safety Commissioner had reported the moisture content in Aravana as 17 to 18 per cent. Mr. Babu said the TDB has been violating key directions of the High Court regarding Aravana preparation at Sabarimala.
